Tsonga Outduels Federer for Rogers Cup Title
France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga captured the Rogers Cup trophy on Sunday, defeating Roger Federer 7-5, 7-6(3) in Toronto to win his first ATP Tour title of the season.
The win over Federer marks the fourth straight over a higher-seeded opponent for Tsonga, who had previously ousted Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Grigor Dimitrov before toppling the Swiss in the final.
“I think for me it’s going to be a new motivation because just last year I always lost against those guys and it was really frustrating for me,” said Tsonga, who is now 5-11 in his career against Federer. “Then today a win against [Federer], it’s good for me, it’s good for my ambition and it’s good for my career.”
The opening set was sprayed with some unforced errors by each player as the two held serve throughout the first 10 games. While serving at 5-5, Tsonga needed a hold to flip the pressure back onto Federer’s serve. After Tsonga held, Federer failed to keep two long shots in play and coughed up the first break-point of the match which gave the first set to the 13th seeded Frenchman.
Much like in the opening frame, the second set consisted of held serves as neither player was able to utilize an effective return game. Each would have their chances to notch key break points but were unable to which forced the second set into a tiebreaker.
Tsonga would finally break Federer’s serve while up 4-3 in the tiebreaker, and he never looked back, reeling off the next three games after that to seal the victory.
The loss marks the fifth loss in a title match for Federer this season.
“I fought, I mixed it up and I was hoping to sort of sneak in a set and then maybe he would get a bit nervous or maybe would play a bad game,” said Federer. “But I just couldn’t create enough opportunities.”
Both players will be in action this week at the Western and Southern open from Cincinnati, Ohio. Federer will be the second-seed and receive a first-round bye, while Tsonga will take on Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny in the opening round.
